In early 2020, the coronavirus pandemic was beginning to fracture parts of daily life. On March 13, 2020, former President Donald Trump declared a national emergency. Two days later, shutdowns began across the country, impacting schools, businesses and restaurants, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
In response, Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Security Act, CARES, on March 27, 2020. This Legislature included $13.2 billion for the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund, ESSER, which allowed state and local educational institutions to receive funds to combat the coronavirus pandemic impacts, as stated by the U.S. Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, OESE.
Nine months later, the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act, or CRRSA, was approved. In this law, educational institutions were given access to another $54.3 billion in a second round of ESSER funds known as ESSER II, OESE stated.
A third round of ESSER funds then became available when signed into law on March 11, 2021, with the American Rescue Plan Act, OESE said. This package offered state and local educational institutions an additional $122 billion to assist with maintaining school operations as the country began to reopen following widespread shutdowns.
With the availability of these funds, specific uses were designated for certain portions. Uses included supporting the implementation of afterschool programs, staff professional development, mental health interventions and purchasing relevant technology, as stated in the American Rescue Plan Act.
Yet, with the expiration of remaining ESSER funds on September 30, school districts across the state are now facing difficult decisions on whether to keep or cut added programs and staff, where to make cuts, and where to draw the needed funds to maintain added programming. To capture different perspectives on how towns are approaching this transition, Reminder Publishing reached out to multiple school districts across Western Massachusetts.
In Holyoke Public Schools, Executive Director of Finance Sean Mangano highlighted how the district worked to avoid a funding “cliff” from the upcoming loss of ESSER through “a lot of forward-looking, long-range planning.” He told Reminder Publishing that the district was decreasing staff in the fiscal year 2025 budget, but that most of the cut positions were vacant or were designed to be temporary.
The vacancies occurred due to the district’s difficulty in finding staff to fill added special education and English language teacher positions developed from the district’s strategic plan. Additionally, no programs were reduced from the loss of ESSER, he said.
“For us, that’s why it was a minimal impact because we had a high number of vacancies and then also because we are getting an increase in our Chapter 70 money through the Student Opportunity Act so that helped soften the loss of ESSER,” Mangano explained. He noted that the vacant positions connected to the strategic plan would have been supported by Chapter 70 funds if they had been filled.
Across the three rounds of ESSER, the district received a total of $57.9 million in funds with the money being allocated to supports such as academic interventions, coaching, a new curriculum and literacy tutors, Mangano stated. With the funds’ approaching expiration, programming previously supported by the state funds will be partially absorbed by the general fund and partially relocated to support by the Student Opportunity Act, which will allow the district to continue these programs, he said.
East Longmeadow Public Schools reported similarly positive results. In a conversation with Reminder Publishing, Assistant Superintendent for Business Pamela Blair stated that the School Department had been “careful” and “strategic” with spending and planning use of ESSER funds throughout the coronavirus pandemic. As a result, the School Department was “lucky” and experienced few impacts, she said.
A deep dive into the department’s ESSER III Implementation Plan highlights the work that the school system targeted with the support of the coronavirus pandemic funds, such as focusing on expanding access to preschool and advanced placement courses for “underserved” students, utilizing a high-quality curriculum to remain “culturally-responsive” as well as focusing on using interventions and a positive school climate to ensure students graduate.
This work can be seen in the department’s recent updates with the principals reporting significant drops in chronic absenteeism and increased focus on student support systems like mental health counseling during the department’s 2023-24 end-of-year report. Superintendent Gordon Smith further expressed this sentiment, stating at the School Committee’s FY25 budget overview meeting that the department had “done a nice job” utilizing available funds to support students and recover lost positions following the FY21 and FY22 coronavirus pandemic impacts.
Yet, other districts experienced greater challenges. In Northampton, Superintendent Portia Bonner warned the district of “reliance on ESSER funds for recurring increases” in December 2023, stating in the budget presentation that more than $793,000 of ESSER funds were utilized to support recurring costs in FY24, including staff salaries. Additionally, the district added 46.31 staff positions between FY20 and FY24 with the largest increases being paraeducators and teachers, according to data from the presentation.
In Belchertown, Superintendent Brian Cameron cited the loss of ESSER funds as a restricting factor to the school budget, which ultimately recommended 17.5 cut staff positions in its requested budget to the town. This budget included the elimination of four core teachers at the middle school, as well as 4.5 paraprofessionals at Cold Spring School, which teaches kindergarten and pre-K, Cameron stated.
According to state records, Northampton Public Schools received approximately $5.1 million in ESSER funds across the three payments while Belchertown received about $1.9 million. In comparison, East Longmeadow was allotted about $3.3 million in ESSER funding.
Ultimately, each district experienced a variety of challenges and successes in balancing the additional support of ESSER funding with the need to maintain a stable budget. Yet, despite the current difficulties that districts are experiencing, the allotted state funds overall provided many districts with opportunities to offer more supportive and effective educational environments for students.
